Moving on to Better Things
by Slayzer
Summary: Before the start of the game. Hope and Alyssa have a little office romance while working late one night. This is a Hope/Alyssa with a little dash of bittersweet Hope/Light.  never played this game when I wrote this so it my be off by a lot


Okay I've been on the fence with this FFXIII-2 for months now. Mostly because most of the media I see is of Serah and Noel. To put in nicely playing the first game Serah was the low point. Every flashback Snow, Lightning or Vanille had with Serah just annoyed me. She's a weak, sobbing, bitchy, useless little thing and I skipped most of them. The thought of playing forty hours with her sorry ass as the main 'hero' is too much.

(Okay maybe that wasn't putting it nicely.)

Now that I see other pictures of some of the other guys I'm a little more enthused. Mostly the cute blond girl Alyssa who is working with Hope. Already I like her, she kind of reminds me of Yuffie. Sadly I haven't seen any battle screen shots with them as playable characters. Still the two of them interest me so here's a little cliched office romance between them.

FFXIII-2 is owned by Square Enix.

(but I swear if this game is forty hours of a pity party with Serah, Noel and their a pet moggle I'd trade this in and put it toward Mass Effect 3 in a heartbeat.)

Moving on to Better Things.

By Slayzer

Eighteen year old Hope Estheim. Director of the Academy sat behind his needlessly large and ornate desk. Currently his hands were flying across a keyboard as he finished the last of a mountain of paper work. Orders to other departments, updates of on going projects and proposals for new projects. When he created the Academy to help ensure mankind's survival on Grand Pules without the fal'cie, Hope thought it was a continuation of his Focus to save the world. What he didn't know was how much paperwork would be involved.

The door to Hope's office opened and his assistant Alyssa Zaidelle walked in with a tablet computer. Alyssa was a cute young girl, with short blonde hair and dressed in a yellow and white Academy uniform. Even thou Hope was now the leader of such an organization it never felt like he was in charge of Alyssa. It was as if she just happened to be behind him as they were walking along the same path.

"That's the last of the status reports Director."

"Good." Hope said he cracked his sore knuckles loudly. "You know when I first became a l'Cie I thought that nothing could be a worse punishment but I was wrong. Being a bureaucrat is a whole different kind of suffering."

Alyssa smiled and rolled her eyes as she collected a few data files from Hope's desk. "Maybe if you didn't spent so much time out in the field away from your deck the paperwork wouldn't build up."

It was true that Hope had let it build up but that didn't mean he liked to hear it. "Well maybe if I had someone who could handle some of this workload while I was on a mission it wouldn't be so bad. Someone like, gee I don't know, an Assistant of some sort."

"Ha! Every time you go out into the field I have to go with you. After all someone has to watch your back and make sure you make it back alive."

"True."

Alyssa was momentary stunned. She had expected him to deny it and say something about how a man doesn't need a woman watching his back. Then she get him back as this little game of verbal taunting was a stress relief for them both. The honest truth that Hope, one of the l'Cie heroes, trusted her with his life was... well flattering.

Hope stretched his arms out as he tried to work out the stiffness that had settled into his shoulders after several hours of typing. "I was starting to feel like my shoulder blades were going to fuse into my spine."

"Would you like a back rub?"

"I can't ask that of you Alyssa. Your my assistant not my masseuse."

"But you didn't ask Director, I offered."

Alyssa moved behind Hope and started to work her fingers into his sore shoulders. Hope was so tense after her first touch. Then slowly, ever so slowly, he relaxed as her hands rubbed away his stress. Alyssa couldn't help but notice how attractive Hope was as he closed his eyes and sighed happily.

It wasn't that Alyssa was unaware of Hope's good looks. It was just that working so close with him for so long she seen him as her boss first. Now with her hands touching him so intimately those professional blinders she wore disappeared.

It hit both of them that this was very unprofessional.

More shocking then that was the fact that they didn't care.

Hope stood up and stretched a bit before facing Alyssa. "Well now I'm all good an loosened up would you like to go dancing with me?"

"Huh?"

"I know this little hole in the wall club, good food, great drinks and amazing jazz. I just thought it be nice to spend some time together when we're on the clock."

"Director..."

"Would it really be so bad for you to call me by my name for a change?"

Alyssa thought about it for a few long moments. "Okay, Hope. Let me just finish filing these reports away and change clothes. As this is just us casually getting some drinks after work we should ware our street clothes and not our Academy uniforms."

Hope gave Alyssa a boyish smile that could light up a city block. "Good idea and I think I would enjoy seeing you out of your uniform."

There was a clatter as the data pads Alyssa was holding slipped from her hands and rained down on the floor. That wasn't an innocent slip of the tongue or poor choice of words from Hope. This would not be a causal after work meeting but a date.

The way that Alyssa quickly picked up the data pads and rushed for the door made Hope think that he came on to strong. Then just before she opened the door to leave Alyssa turned around to face Hope. "I'll be downstairs in forty five minutes so don't keep me waiting and..." Alyssa gave Hope a smile and wink. "...I think I would like to see you our of your uniform too Hope."

Alyssa then walked out of Hope's office and closed the door behind her. Once outside Alyssa let her body lean on the door as her knees went weak and she hugged the data pads tightly against her body.

"Hope Estheim." Alyssa had to bit her lip as she enjoyed the feeling of rolling Hope's name around her mouth. She wounder if by the end of this night if she could know what it was like to feel Hope's tongue rolling around her mouth as well.

Back in his office Hope smiled and sighed with relief. For a moment their he thought he came on to strong. Alyssa had always seemed open to Hope affections before in the quite little dance of seduction they played at work. It was however a whole other thing to act on those feeling.

There was one thing Hope had to do before he left. Siting down at his computer he opened a hidden file that was triple encoded.

Lightning Farron's image appeared on Hope's computer screen.

The file was an request for Sargent Farron to begin officer's training and it came with her official Guardian Corps photo. It was just one of millions of random data files that survived from the old Sanctum information system. Yet that picture was the only one of Light he had. At times Hope wished he had one of Light smiling as he remembered she had a beautiful smile but she rarely smiled. The image of Light looking so strong and proud suited her more as that's how she was in life.

Hope told himself that the Academy was for the benefit of everyone but he couldn't help but check ever report hoping to find her. That somehow someone would find proof of her existence, that she was still alive.

Nothing.

Years and nothing not even her foot prints.

Hope didn't go looking for Vanille or Fang and he knew what fate befell his mother and father but somehow he couldn't give up on Light. Serah couldn't either at it was costing both her and Snow a chance at happiness. Hope would not make that mistake and faced the hard truth.

Light was as good as dead and no amount of waiting would change that.

Hope made a few keystrokes.

[Are you sure want to delete 'Light'?]

The command flashed across Hope's computer with the file's poorly chosen name and he hesitated.

But only for a moment.

Hope clicked on "Yes" and in a heartbeat Light was gone.

Hope knew he couldn't be faithful to Alyssa if in his heart if he was still holding out for Lightning. Now he could move on, truly move on and give himself to Alyssa who was here with him now.

After all there's nothing wrong if while building the future for Cocoon's you build a little one for yourself.

-The End-

My first fanfic for a game I've never played but right here and now I'm going to call it. In the end it's Hope/Alyssa for the win.

That or Hope is like the hidden boss. Hope and the Academy rolls up on Lightning and Caius and kicks the crap out of both of them. I could see him being all like. "Our ideal world doesn't need fal'Cie or gods. So for a world ruled by humans, disappear!"

That would be harsh and so cool.


End file.
